Hello!
We have just come off of the busiest and craziest two weeks! They had so much good in them, but the days were exhausting and had me questioning every single day if we should pull our kids out of all extra-curricular activities! Which we really won't do, but I will admit, it is kind of nice to think about! In reality, it was just Bridget and Rachel's things that made us so busy and sent us over the edge, but all is done now and so much fun was had, so we will keep pressing on!
*I will start with the most exciting and wonderful...Bridget turned 12 on Saturday, March 11th! Twelve! I can hardly believe it. She celebrated her birthday at school the day before. She took in treats for her class and was able to bring in five things that would help people know more about her. Her five objects centered around her family and goats. :) On her birthday she was so kind to let people sleep in, bless her. We were all up shortly after 8:00 though and she was able to open her presents. She got some new clothes and dresses, gel nail polish, a book, mochis, a purse (with a goat on it!), a new squishmellow, and a couple of other goat things. :) We had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, baked eggs, and sausage. Bridget was in heaven. I left with Gretchen at 11:15 to take her to get her hair cut. As a side note, the Monday before Gretchen asked me when she could have short hair again. I told her she could have short hair whenever she wanted! She told me she wanted it right now. :) I told her to think about it for a few days, to which she replied she had thought about it and wanted it now. Ha! I let it go, but the next day she asked me if I had made her hair appointment yet. So, I made it for Saturday, giving her some time to change her mind. Well, she never changed her mind and her hair is now eight inches shorter. One week in and she is still loving it. She looks so darling and she especially loves that she can pretty much take care of her hair all on her own now. An independent little Bear Cub. Okay, I digress from Bridget's birthday! Richard and the other kids met Gretchen and I after her haircut at Arella's for Bridget's birthday lunch. We had a great time eating delicious food and celebrating our beloved Bridget. We had a lazy afternoon at home. My parents stopped by to visit Bridget and she had fun talking to them and showing them all her gifts. At 5:00 pm the real party began. Bridget invited three of her bestest friends to her birthday party. I took those four girls to get manicures and out to dinner at Chick-Fil-A. It was so fun to listen to them talk to each other as I drove them around. They are all such good friends and great girls from wonderful families and I am beyond grateful that Bridget will have them by her side as they start junior high together in the fall. We got home about 7:00 and Bridget opened their gifts. All gifts had something to do with goats and not a single thing was a duplicate. Amazing. Apparently, there are a lot of goat items in the world, and this just shows how well her friends know her! We had brownies and ice cream sundaes for dessert and then those four girls just played and entertained themselves for the next two hours. My kind of birthday party!
We are so grateful to have Bridget in our family. Pre-teen emotions are coming into play just a bit, but she remains calm, level-headed, cooperative, a peacemaker, and the greatest sibling. All the other kids have fun when Bridget is around. She is loud and silly at home and has a unique energy that keeps us laughing. Out in public, she is calmer and more quiet and no one would ever guess how loud she can be in the safety of our home. She is a wonderful and thoughtful friend, and has attracted those same people to her. She loves young womens and I am so grateful for all the wonderful experiences she has had with them in just three months. Obviously, she is still loving the farm, and though I literally loathe it, I do love watching her thrive there. A couple of weeks ago, a goat was being very stubborn and not wanting to get herself in the right position to be milked. Cambria was getting so frustrated, and I watched Bridget walk over to the goat, give her a gentle tug by the collar, get her off the milking stand, turn her around, got her back on the stand and slipped her head right into the perfect spot. Bridget was so calm and patient and that goat knew it. Shortly after this, another goat was being stubborn and it resulted in a literal goat milk shower for Bridget. Oh my goodness, we were laughing SO hard. We had tears rolling down our cheeks, including Bridget, who also had goat milk dripping down her body. Bless her. Bottom line, we are so grateful we have Bridget, and though part of me is terrified for the teenage years with my daughters, I also cannot wait to see all the good that is in store for them.
*Marshall started track two weeks ago. I picked him up after the first day and he reported that he hated it. Ha! The whole team trained together and they did a sprint workout. Not his favorite. He missed the next day because he had to get his physical, but the day after that he reported that he loved it! They did distance training and he double-lapped some kids so that made him real happy. The last two weeks they have had to practice at the junior high, but starting on Monday they will practice at the high school. I can't wait to see what he thinks of it! Now if only we could get him to eat more...growing up with my brothers I never thought I would have a teenage boy who did not consume all food in sight. Aside from track, Marshall has been busy with band the last two weeks. They had their third term band concert at the high school. Richard and I went along with my parents and we had a great evening. A few days later the 8th and 9th grade band played at a state festival up at the U and had some music classes up there. Marshall had a great time and his band scored well! Then on Thursday night they played at a district band festival. Marshall said it was low-key and not at all what he was expecting. It was just five junior highs and they all set up in different parts of the gym and then listened to each other play three songs. Haha! But, he still had a good time and was home earlier than he though-win! In the middle of all this, Marshall did get the stomach flu on Monday. He called me just after noon on Monday...never good to get a phone call from your son in the middle of the school day. I answered the phone with huge trepidation. The poor kid threw up in science class...in class. When I picked him up he was white as a ghost. The wonderful school secretaries had found him some clean clothes to change into and put all his dirty stuff in a giant bag. His wonderful science teacher cleaned up his computer and made sure it was still in working order. Ugh. It was a miserable day for Marshall. The poor kid was wasted and actually passed out in the basement hallway that night. So sad!
*Dance for Rachel. The last two weeks have been full of extra dance things for Rachel. It has been equal parts fun and exhausting. On Wednesday the 8th, she was supposed to perform with her dance team at the Vykelle concert, but sadly she had the stomach flu! Ugh. It was miserable and so sad for her. She threw up at school, but unlike Marshall, she managed to make it to the bathroom! It was a sad day for her. She felt awful and she and I both were so sad she had to miss that performance. Thankfully, by the next day she was feeling so much better. I kept her home from school just so she could rest up because she had a big dance night ahead of her. On Thursday the 9th, Rachel spent her afternoon and evening at Bountiful High for a tech rehearsal. The next evening, on the 10th, we all went to cheer on Rachel, as well as all the other competitive dance teams at Project Move as they performed all their competition dances for family and friends. These dancers learned all their competition dances back in August and September and they work on them week after week. It was beyond impressive. And it is so incredible to see the progression between the different age groups. Rachel is definitely a better dancer than I was at her age, and I love watching her. Then to see those high school girls up their killin' it, it is just so remarkable. My parents were also there and when the concert was over my Dad said to me, "Well, dance has certainly changed a lot in 20 years!" He is absolutely correct. It is amazing. Anyway, it was just such a fun night to watch Rachel and all her fellow dancers. Rachel's team has three routines and she did great in all of them. Then just this last weekend Rachel and I were down in Provo Friday morning until this morning for a competition and convention. This was her first ever convention, so it was brand new for both of us. She and I left Friday morning just before 9:00 am and drove down to Provo. We had requested an early check-in and I was thrilled and relieved that our room was ready for us when we pulled in at 10:00 am! We got up to our room, got Rachel in her first costume, did all her make-up, which includes fake eyelashes (might be the death of me) and walked across the street to the convention center. We found her team, and they warmed up and ran through their dance a couple of times before taking the stage. Their first dance was "Walk the Line". It is quirky, but I actually love it. The girls did great! After that they had a very quick change for "One Shoe Blues". They did great again! By this time, it was past lunch and we were starving. Rachel and I went to Olive Garden with Sara and her mom and had a great afternoon together. After our late lunch we went back to the convention center for the awards. I will admit, I am still a bit confused with the awards and placings, but both routines for Rachel's group scored in the platinum range (the highest) and then "One Shoe Blues" placed first in their division. Yay! We were able to chill at the hotel for a little bit after awards and then Meri and I took the girl back over to the convention center. They had warm-ups with all the dancers from 5:30-6:00 and then they divided the dancers into smaller age groups and rotated through five different 45 minute classes with one 15 minute break at 8:15. Meri and I hung out at the hotel and had a great time together, but we went back over for the break to check on our little dancers. They were having a ball and LOVED their ballroom class. So fun for them! Classes were supposed to be done at 10:15, but they didn't stumble out until after 10:30! Such a long, but also very fun night for them. Thankfully, we were able to sleep in on Saturday and that is exactly what we did. I woke up at 8:45 and Rachel woke up at 9:00! Lovely! We had a slow, slow morning and just relaxed in our room, watching TV, playing games and eating breakfast. At 1:00 we got Rachel all ready again and met Sara and her mom and walked over to the convention center at 1:30. This routine is their hip-hop routine and it is all the Project Move teams who are competing at nationals in July. It is such a fun dance. It is called Clue, and I bet you guessed it, is based on the board game/movie. Each team is a different character and it is so clever. Rachel's group is the youngest. They are detectives and they are darling. Each team gets their time to shine and then they all come on at the end to dance together. It is amazing. Rachel especially loved it yesterday because they had to make one small tweak at the end. The stage set up yesterday was just a stage in the middle of the grand ballroom and there weren't really wings. At the very end the detectives leave the stage, but because there were no wings for them to run into, they had them jump off the stage! Rachel thought this was amazing, and was maybe her personal highlight of the routine! Ha! Clue was the last performance of the day so the awards were right after. Clue got a platinum ranking and also placed first! Yay! After all of that, we went to dinner with Sara and her mom again. This time we went to Zupas and we all ate and ate. This was our lunch at 3:30! We were all starving. After that meal, the girls got 20 minutes of downtime before we took them back for their last night of classes. Rachel was not feelin' it, but once we got over there her teammates rallied around her and perked her up. Their dance schedule was slightly shorter last night, with just four hours of classes instead of five. :) When Meri and I went over for the break Rachel was all smiles, and I was SO relieved! Same thing when we picked them up at 9:30. The teachers were so fun and the girls all had a blast. It was a great weekend for Rachel and her teammates. I also had a great time as well! There were definitely stressful times (hello fake eyelashes), but I got a lot of downtime! I had a blast hanging out with Meri and I got caught up on a lot of life as Rachel watched TV! She was a fun little travel buddy too. She talked my ear off the whole way down to Provo and I loved snuggling up with her at night. She has always been a snuggler. :)
*Secret Grandma Tea Party. This has been a Young Women's event months in the making and it finally came to fruition on March 8th and it was completely delightful. Months ago, the Young Women's presidency matched up young women with women in the ward and we were pen pals back and forth. The young women knew who their pen pal was, but the woman did not know who she was writing to. I volunteered to be a "secret grandma" as they were calling it and I loved exchanging letters with my secret young woman week after week. In January they matched up the new young women with secret grandmas so Bridget was also able to participate. Finally, on Wednesday, March 8th, was our secret grandma tea party. It was held at the Memorial House in Memory Grove Park. Many of the young women arrived an hour early to help decorate and set up. It was so beautiful! Each secret grandma and each young woman brought a picture of themselves when they were younger and they arranged those pictures at the tables, placing each young woman by her secret grandma. We got to sit by each other for an hour, eat delicious finger foods and desserts, and had so much fun talking face to face with each other. It was honestly such a fun, fun evening. I was totally surprised by who my young woman was and I loved talking with her. All the young women at my table weren't in YW's when I was in there, so it was so great talking to all of them and getting to know them better. Bridget also had the most delightful evening with her secret grandma and her grandma remembered her birthday and brought her a gift! Such a fun idea to promote unity and friend-shipping across generations.
*Elementary school musical. Newsies has consumed Bridget's last two weeks, but she sure had a lot of fun! Two weeks ago she was in final rehearsals for the show. And then this last week the performances finally arrived! Both casts performed for the school on Tuesday. Bridget's cast did the afternoon performance and Rachel was able to watch that one. Bridget said there were a few small glitches, but overall, it went very well. Opening night was Wednesday night. I chaperoned, so I wasn't able to be in the audience and watch, but I was able to sneak out of my assigned spot whenever it was empty and catch good chunks of the play from the hallway, which made me so happy. Bridget only had one line, but she had a ton of stage time, and she radiated. My parents and Gretchen were in the audience for her Wednesday evening and were able to cheer her on. On Thursday night Bob and Becky came, along with Rachel, Gretchen, and me. On Friday night Richard and Marshall were finally able to go, and Gretchen tagged along again. Initially, she was all on-board watching Newsies for four straight days, but Richard reports she was over it Friday night! Ha! Bridget had so much fun and I am so proud of her for doing the musical again. She has participated each year it has been available to her, and I love that she has done it. I will be interested to see if she finds her way back to the stage again one day.
*Toney women book club. Over the last two years, my Mom, my Utah sisters-in-law, and me have finally read the same book, "The Things We Cannot Say". It is definitely in my top five books of all time. I hosted a book club for all of us on Monday morning. We ate delicious sourdough waffles, and other wonderful foods, and talked about the book as well as many other things. It was a real treat and a great way to spend a Monday morning! If any of you read this book, please let me know and we will go out to lunch and talk all about it!
Lastly, one funny story about Gretchen. Two weeks ago was Spirit Week for her Let's Play Music class. She could earn little prizes by me promoting Let's Play Music on social media. Gretchen had her heart set on some new playdoh, which required me to do a post and use a specific hashtag. I took a video of her to post and as soon as I finished the video of her playing her song she said, "Are you hash-tagging?!" It cracked me up!
Okay, that's it! Like I said these last two weeks have held so many great and wonderful things for our kids, but Richard and I are worn out! A two-week cruise sounds pretty great right about now! Ha! Unfortunately, this is not in our future, but looking at our calendar, our life this coming week seems a bit more manageable...I hope that proves to be the case!
We love each of you.
Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel, and Gretchen :)
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